Outside Looking In
by SamNny
Summary: "So a note to Kid: don't fuckin' hurt my meister." A KiMa story as told by Soul.


Soul's P.O.V.

You wanna know how I knew this was going to be so bittersweet? Well, let me start off by saying, I'm going to feel this little twinge of pain for a couple of weeks. Some adjustments would have to be made, none of which were going to be easy, but... damn, it would be worth it. To see her smile like that, to be as happy as she was... I could make sacrifices like that for her. She was my meister, after all.

So, here's what happened: Maka and I went along, same as we always have, being the super cool duo we've always been. With the help of our friends, we were able to somehow defeat Asura. It was all Maka in the end, but let's face it - she couldn't have done it without us. So we kicked his sorry ass, finally able to ease our worry and the tension that was brought up due to his presence, and refocus on our primary goal. It was time to get back down to business and start collecting more souls so I could become a death scythe.

But my girly-excuse for a partner was lagging. I knew she would need time to recover after such an intense battle (we all did), but this was beyond anything like that. Her wounds healed up months ago, her body was completely stable, and she was stronger than ever. We took on our first mission since Asura's defeat two months ago and progress has been stifled ever since. I thought it was nerves, at first, thinking that maybe she was hesitant about going into another battle after everything that happened. It wasn't, thankfully, but it did nothing to help our cause.

So, here's how it all went down: we come back from a mission from Turkey, having successfully collected two Kishin souls from some Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde wanna-be's, and we report in to Lord Death. He's all happy and excited for us, same as usual, and Spirit was in the background threatening to rip my head off... again. He just finishes with the whole, "My Maka is a beautiful young woman and your hands better not so much as graze her skin or I'll-" before Lord Death shut him up for me. Then, all of a sudden, Kid waltzes out of nowhere.

It wouldn't have been such a big deal if he didn't have that lazy gleam in his eyes. Honestly, everything would have been fine. But then he joins Lord Death and they both start chatting us up, Kid's eyes never leaving Maka. Dude didn't even acknowledge me, let alone include me in anything. It was like he was fixated entirely on my meister, but not even her father seemed to notice. I thought that I was probably just being stupid for noticing what was probably nothing, so I tried to shrug it off.

Everything just went downhill from there. They'd see each other at school, and then it was over. Maka'd walk away from me, sometimes right in the middle of a sentence, and go stand by him. He'd smile at her, his attitude always perking up, and they'd talk together. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. I always knew that they would get along, what with them both being so smart and all. That, then you add in the fact that they've both got fine-tuned soul perception and a very strong soul resonance, and that just makes it even better. But everything pre-Asura suggested that they were just friends.

Not wanting to be nosy or jump to assumptions too quickly, I decided to do some investigating. Since Kid decided that his time was better spent with my meister, I took advantage of his isolated weapons. "Liz, Patty. Got a minute?" I asked them after class one day. They raised their brows at me, but walked down the halls with me anyway. "What's up?" was all I got out of the older Thompson sister.

"You notice anything off about Kid lately? He doin' anything weird?" I said, aside from all of the strange and bizarre stuff he does already. But Liz just stared off into space, thinking, I hoped. She stayed quiet for several minutes until we reached the women's restroom. She put one hand on the door to signify that she was going in, Patty tagging along with her every step of the way. But before she disappeared into the men's forbidden zone, she said, "Kid's always pretty strange, it's just in his nature. But if you're asking about all of his sudden interest and free-time with Maka, then, yes. It's pretty abnormal for him to spend so much alone time with someone."

And then she just walked away, the door shutting behind her. I would have left, too, had Patty not been glaring daggers at me. It would have been truly horrifying had she not also had this stupid... scowl on her face? I think that's what you would call it. She quickly threw her hands on her hips, and with the most serious tone I'd ever heard from her, she said, "You better not get in the way of Kid's happiness!" It would have been a real moment of amazement and loyalty from the younger weapon had she not also added, "Thanks to Maka, Kid hasn't noticed all of the asymmetrical giraffes I drew on the inside of his notebook." And then she, too, scampered off after her sister.

The only good thing to come out of all of that nonsense was the confirmation that something was indeed going on between them. Maka making Kid happy equals something fishy is going on. Kid not noticing something asymmetrical also equals the end of the world as we know it. So I pressed the issue a little bit when we got home. Being as slick as I am, too, I made sure to interrogate her on a night where I was the one cooking dinner. Not only could she _not _beat me with pots and pans if I upset her, but she also couldn't refuse to feed me. I would come out full no matter how things turned out.

So I tried to make everything sound casual, real normal-like. I threw in something along the lines of, "You and Kid have been spending an awfully lot of time together lately." kind of line and let it snowball from there. She agreed, making no big deal yet, so I kept pushing. I beat around the bush, trying to subtly ask the obvious questions: How often do you see each other? What are you guys doing? How come I'm excluded from everything? And, of course, what kind of relationship do you have with him now? And that less-than-inconspicuous question is what nailed me to my cross.

"If you have something to say, then say it, Soul. I'm tired of you tip-toeing around whatever it is that you're dying to know." Well, she was less than pleased. But striking a nerve like that could only mean one thing. But just to confirm everything, to make sure to avoid any misunderstandings, I said, "Are you in love with him?" And then it was on. Books of all thicknesses and sizes were being violently hurled at my head as I tried to shield myself with an oversized frying pan. Her level of fury said it all.

"Jeez, Maka, it was just a question! What's the big deal if you are? I just want to know why you've been spending so much time with him is all!" I tried to argue in my defense. I was truthfully a little hurt to find out that she had such strong feelings for someone else. When the books stopped flying, I took a quick peek from behind my pan to find her cheeks flushed bright red and her eyes averted to the floor. She fidgeted from her place across the kitchen table, stammering a bit to find some sort of calm explanation to give me. I didn't need one.

No, I didn't need to actually hear her say that she liked him or anything like that. Instead, I pulled the food from the stove and set the table. She looked at me with both a confused and worried expression, but I tried to ease her mind with a smile (the best I could muster) and a silent invitation to sit down. It was then that I asked her to tell me how it all happened. How it all went from being good friends to supposed lovers.

"To be honest, even I wasn't aware that this was all happening. When Kid first came to the academy, I thought he was pretty handsome, but I didn't think much else of him. His symmetry obsession drove me mad, but other than that, he was just Kid. Plain old Kid, and nothing more. But then... well, I started to admire him. It was purely because of his abilities and skill as a meister! Well, at first... everything sort of was put on hiatus when Medusa freed Asura. My new and not-very-well understood feelings for him didn't go away, they just didn't escalate. Not until after the battle was over."

Her rant and reasons and rationale for everything was continuously explained over dinner and all I could do was stare at her. I had no idea that she had even paid the slightest bit of attention to Kid, let alone developed all sorts of crazy feelings for him. He was strong, smart, handsome, and so forth. Everything women want in their men, but him... he was "different." He wasn't like all of the other men out there that only wanted sex and nothing else. He would never cheat on a woman, or even think about it, and he would always be there. He was dependable - something her father was not.

And that's what really got me. I think I was more bothered by the fact that she was saying all of these things about him rather than that she didn't feel that way about me. Romantic butterflies aside, I was hurt. I had never cheated on her (in a way that a partner couldn't cheat on his meister, and friend had never backstabbed their friend). I always put her first, always made sure that she was safe and not off somewhere in tears because of whatever. I never once thought of ending our partnership in search of a new meister. I never once considered moving out when things got too dramatic. I was always around when she needed me, always ready to pummel whatever low-life had stomped on her feelings (including Spirit). That was me all the way.

But it was always the same. She always doubted me, always assumed I would leave her. She would lump me in with every other guy in the world, only setting me apart after I drilled it into her head that I was different. All of these years, hardships, and fights later and she was still unsure about me. Then in comes Kid, fresh from the who-knows where, and he's instantly better than everyone else. He won her trust so easily and cleared her mind of any doubts she may have had. And he didn't even have to try.

It was only then that I let my mind settle on the real picture here. Kid and Maka were a thing now, or at least, they should have been. According to Maka, neither one of them has admitted anything to each other. Losers. She can sit there and pour all of her feeling out about him to me as if it were the most natural thing in the world, but she couldn't tell him to his face? Really?

In any case, I let my thoughts linger on how I felt about the two of them. Officially together or not, she had no feelings for me. I was her partner, her weapon, her best friend. I was a very important man in her life, the first to get this close to her aside from Kid, and as such, I knew I held a special place in her heart. Kid couldn't replace me as any of those things and Maka wouldn't ditch me altogether because of him. She wasn't stupid, she wouldn't let a relationship with anyone come between the two of us. That comforted me a little.

But examining my own feelings, I had always thought that I was in love with Maka. It made sense, anyway. She was pretty, had a good heart, strong will... coolest meister ever. But I couldn't actually list all of the things I thought I loved about her. See, this had all been weighing heavy on my mind since she told me, and when I ran into Kid at school the next day, I confronted him as well. He went on and on about Maka's perfect symmetry. I thought my ears were going to start bleeding with how much I couldn't stand hearing him talk. But when he finally dropped that point, I finally understood.

"It's not just her symmetry, though, I hope you understand. I'm not that shallow. Maka is an incredible woman, so beautiful and bold. I've never seen eyes as deep green and on fire as hers. The way they light up when she talks about being a great meister like her mother, or even the flare of hatred at the mention of her father, it's all amazing. Her ash-blonde locks that are always tied so perfectly back, framing her face in just a way that highlights everything spectacular about her."

He did exactly what Maka did last night, going off about how wonderful she was. I clung to his every word, realizing more and more that even if I wanted to say things like that about her, I couldn't. I didn't feel that strongly. And that... _that _hit me real hard. Here I was for all these years thinking that I was as in love as I could have been with the most important woman in my life and I was wrong. Just wrong.

So, yeah, there you have it. Looking at the two of them, I could tell that it wouldn't be long before one of them broke. Someone would cave and confess before too long and then Maka would be permanently out of my grasp. And as uncool as it was and as much as it sucked, I had no intention of doing anything about it. That guy loved her more than I could even comprehend and only douche-bags stand in the way of two people they care about. Kid was my friend, and I had respect for him. Maka was my meister, and deserved to be nothing but happy.

What I'm really trying to say, I guess, is that as hard as it is to wrap my head around all of this, I know it's all for the better. Maybe a love-struck Maka would get her ass in gear after hooking up with a certain reaper and double-time it to make me a death scythe. Then they can both go and live happily ever after. Or symmetrically ever after. Whatever. So long as this pain in my chest subsides and Maka's happy, I could care less what Kid does. But if he breaks her heart, I'll be damn sure to swallow up his soul before Spirit even realizes what happened.

So a note to Kid: don't fuckin' hurt my meister.

* * *

"A/N: So I really wanted to write a cut KiMa fic, but it turned into this instead. I was reading a bunch of fic's and I cannot believe how many people write Soul as this cheating, low-life asshole. I can't picture him like that at all. So this is just more how I would imagine him reacting to finding out that Kid and Maka like each other. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm a huge SoMa fan and I believe that Soul really loves her. This at least makes sense, though. Anyway, I'm done rambling. Hope you enjoyed this story on Soul's perspective. Leave a review?"


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